How to Build a Database of Customers

Customers are the heartbeat of any company. They are the sole pillar that rakes in the revenues and helps you expand your company’s horizon. Hence, it goes without saying that you might be doing everything in your power to attract more customers.

But have you ever found yourself wondering – Is This Enough?

While it is obviously important to build a database of customers, it is imperative to do it the right way. Statistics suggest that a misalignment between Sales and Marketing processes costs B2B companies at least 10% of their revenue every year. Moreover, companies with good marketing practices in place generate 208% more revenue! That is a lot of money to leave on the table unattended.

To understand the direct impact of data, here is a statistic – a report by BrightTalk states that 42% of B2B marketers believe that a lack of quality data is the number one reason why they fail to generate leads.

So how can you make your database more relevant?

Let’s look at the top methods how this can be done.

1) Company Universe: Why it Matters to Know Your Universe?

Before you begin your marketing efforts and reach out to companies, you should be aware of your company’s dynamic universe. Your dynamic universe is defined by the companies that you can reach out to. They are high in relevance to your business and qualify as worthy targets to go after.

It pays to know your universe since it concentrates your efforts and weeds out any unnecessary companies that won’t end up converting in any case. Hence, to begin the process, you should be well aware of the criteria that define your universe. This generally includes gathering data under the following heads:

Location: Which country and city do the prospect lie in? Are you present in that market?

Company Details: What is the size and domain in which the company operates in?

Internal Factors: What kind of services/products does the company offer? What is the budget, revenue, and funding of the prospect?

Willing Decision Makers: Who are the decision makers that take all buying decisions?

Building a database that caters to these data points from day one keeps it healthy and relevant for a long time.

2) Organic Growth: How to Grow Your Customer List Organically?

Organic marketing methods are always more rewarding than traditional strategies of sales. It works by offering something in return for the customer’s personal data. You need to make it as enticing as possible to make users trust you and part with their data. Here are some types of content that can be deployed:

Guides on niche topics

Ebooks and

Webinars on topics that interest your readers

Market research reports

Educational Videos

Infographics

Newsletters

Once you are ready with the content, the next step is to identify the channels of marketing that can be deployed to make use of it. Here are some relevant channels that can be used:

Utilize the power of social media to distribute the content as well as encourage readers to sign up to your list.

Host competition and other activities to keep your readers in the loop and engage them in exchange for their contact details.

3) Managing Lists: What are the Best Practices to Manage a Customer List?

Once you have a list in place, you need to understand that your job does not end here. In fact, it only begins.

Statistics suggest that 30% of customer data becomes obsolete every 3 months. Hence, in the virtual world, it is possible to rot away a goldmine by sitting on it for too long. You need to constantly keep updating it so as to keep it fresh and relevant. For example, it makes no sense to reach out to clients who might not even be the decision makers anymore.

Given the numbers above, it goes without saying that one should never buy data from any source. To start with, it is neither ethical nor legal to do so. Secondly, data from another company will never be relevant for yours. And even if it is, it’s practically impossible to gauge the health of the database.

4) Internet Presence: How Important is Your Website to Attract more Customer?

Your website is one of the first interactions that your company will ever have with your customers. It speaks about your brand and tells your story to the world. Hence, the importance of optimizing your landing pages cannot be understated.

A low-quality landing page will never be able to hold the attention of your visitors long enough to capture their data. Here is how you can improve your landing pages:

Design them by keeping the end goal of capturing the user data in mind

Create an engaging form that encourages users to share their data

Use double opt ins while forming an email database. This is the practice of verifying the email addresses by sending a confirmation email and asking the user to confirm the same

Optimize the landing page by keeping it in sync with the overall look and feel of the website

Use the ‘5 second rule’ by assuming that you have 5 seconds to grab the attention of the user and then designing the page accordingly

Use a clean and defined CTA. Never oversell

Keep your campaign consistent across all the landing pages

5) Next-Gen Emails: How to Use Personalized Emails to Draw More Customers?

Emails will never go out of style and are still one of best marketing methods out there. But they cannot be rolled out in bulk anymore. Personalized emails tend to fare much better in terms of click-through-rate (CTR) and read count.

The basic idea behind personalization is to make use of all the information that you have gathered about the prospects (refer to point 1) and utilize them while crafting the email for each client. Here are some email personalization tips that can reap huge benefits:

Segregate your email list on the basis of the time zones that your customers lie in. They are more likely to be opened at an optimum date and time.

Address prospects by their more than once in the email body.

Try to include instances of ‘praise’ by highlighting any recent achievement of your prospects.

Mention any mutual connections that you might have with the prospect.

Over to You

These techniques will help you turn more eyeballs on yourself and increase your customer base. What other techniques do you generally use to reach out to more customers? Share your views in the comment section below. We would love to hear from you!